The present invention relates to enhanced physical stimulation from textual material and any other type of sense-perceived content, e.g., visual, that has its foundation in thoughts, intentions, sensations and actions that can be described in text, and more particularly, to the conversion of sensory-perceived thoughts, intentions, sensations or actions into physical sensory stimulation through the automated analysis of the sense-perceived content, the generation of controlled-output based on that analysis, and the use of the output to drive a human sensory stimulation device.
People take great pleasure in reading books of various types. The words stimulate the readers' imaginations so that they have some sensation of what it would be like to be the hero or heroine of the story. If the story is a fictional account of a sunset, they can image such a sunset. If the story is about a romantic embrace, it also can be imaged. If the story is about a historical battlefield, the reader can imagine the sights and sounds. However, this stimulation is purely mental and does not involve any of the five senses of the reader.
Television has an advantage over the written word in that the scenes can be viewed and the sounds heard, thus impacting two of the senses. In the past “aroma” movies have been proposed in which smells are injected into a theater at preset times in the video presentations in order to affect the sense of smell. In some productions, seats are vibrated and liquids are sprayed on the audience to affect the sense of touch. However, apparatus involved in producing smells, vibrations, etc. have only existed on a large scale for theaters. They have not been available to the reader of a book, or even someone watching television.
Some people believe that books or text have an advantage over video presentations. In particular, a video presentation represents only the movie director's best attempt to realize his or her own interpretation of the text. It does not allow for the imagination of others in the audience. In addition, the director cannot, for technical reasons, fully realize even his vision of the words.
Thus, it would be an enhancement to the enjoyment and mental fantasy derived from reading text, if the author's intended thoughts, sensations and actions, which are imparted to the reader's imagination by the text could be directly converted into at least stimulation of the sense of touch of the reader. It would be a further enhancement if the author's intended thoughts, sensations and actions could also be projected into the senses of taste and/or smell by automated analysis of the text. It would be a still further enhancement if a video presentation that stimulates the senses of sight and hearing were augmented with synchronized stimulation of at least one of the senses of touch, taste and smell.
In addition, it would be advantageous if the user could alter the sensations intended by the author to sensations more in keeping with the imagination of the user.